Fall River's billboard plan won't go before the Zoning Board

Jo C. Goode Herald News Staff Reporter @jgoodeHN

Thursday

Mar 1, 2018 at 3:51 PMMar 1, 2018 at 10:48 PM

FALL RIVER — Approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals for the city’s plan to construct digital billboards along Interstate 195 and Route 24 is apparently no longer needed, according to Mayor Jasiel Correia II's administration.

“We have a change in approach,” said City Administrator Cathy Ann Viveiros.

With Correia's promises of significant revenue windfalls, the administration wants to lease out city-owned land to a company that would mount several digital billboards more than eight stories high and 50 feet wide, a plan he said could bring in an estimated $10 million to $15 million upfront and a projected $650,000 annually.

Those figures were announced by the city’s billboard consultants, Boston-based Capital Associates Inc. along with Correia last summer. The consultants identified eight sites of city property where the billboards could be located.

In a text message, Viveiros indicated the finance team is unable to project at this time whether any of the billboard revenue will be included in the upcoming fiscal 2019 budget.

Originally, the administration believed it needed to seek a special permit for the project from the zoning board as it also seeks approval from the state Office of Outdoor Advertising in the Department of Transportation.

However, Capitol Associates requested the zoning board table the matter in January after the board’s chairman, David Assad, informed the city he believed the project required a variance.

That changed too, according to Viveiros, and now the administration believes that because the land is city-owned, it’s not subject to zoning regulations.

“This will go directly to the state with no local zoning required,” Viveiros said.

The billboard project has been met with local opposition, with a number of residents and business owners expressing public safety concerns and the issue of aesthetics.

Asked if she felt taking it out of the zoning board’s hands deprived those opponents a public forum to air their concerns, Viveiros said she did not.

“Keep in mind the process isn’t just state approval, and the city has to go out for a [Massachusetts General Laws Chapter] 30B bid solicitation to select a vendor, and the lease agreement has to be approved by the City Council,” Viveiros said.

“Clearly, the City Council is very public. ... Clearly, there will be public opportunity.”

Community activist Joseph Carvalho, a vocal critic of the billboard project since it first came to light, said while he was not aware the plan won’t be before the zoning board he has no problem with a delay.

“Now it’s going to give us a little more time to continue to work on some angles we are pursuing,” Carvalho said.

First and foremost, the opponents are concerned with the public safety aspect of the distraction to drivers the billboards may cause, said Carvalho, and they are working on collecting data both on the state and national level regarding crash statistics.

“If anyone thinks they are not going to be a distraction, they are living on another planet,” Carvalho said.

The proposed digital billboard sites are at Government Center at Captain Gromada Plaza over I-195; another behind Government Center in the city employee parking area; off the Braga Bridge on city-owned property at Exit 5; the eastern end of Bedford Street; south of Central Street and west of Route 79; north of Father Devalles Boulevard; Fourth Street at the corner of Hartwell Street; the north side of Brayton Avenue; and what the consultants identify as “Market Street” facing South Main Street. Market Street is no longer a street, and was removed to make way for I-195 in the mid-1960s. Its location is now a portion of the parking lot between Government Center and the People, Incorporated building.

Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com.

WHERE WOULD YOU SEE THE BILLBOARDS?

The city is hoping to place several billboards in key locations on city-owned land. Where would you be likely to see these billboards, based on their proposals? (All locations approximate.)

Government Center at Gromada Plaza:

Behind Government Center in the city employee parking lot:

Off the Braga Bridge near Exit 5:

At the far eastern end of Bedford Street:

South of Central Street, west of Route 79:

North of Father Devalles Boulevard:

Fourth and Hartwell Streets:

"Market Street":

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